Angel Sick :(

hi guys,

A few days ago I came home from a 3 weeks holiday, in which time my father had been visiting to look after my tank.
I think he had been feeding them alot every 2-3 days, and the tank was a bit dirty.
When I went to clean it up I notice that Albert, my angel had some open sores on his body.





(sorry about the photos - he is way to fast for me to get a good shot!)

He is not at all looking unwell. He is in fact alot more active and gets extremely excited when I come to the tank and he can't eat enough food!! ( which is unusual for him)
Tank conditions when I cleaned were 25degrees celcius, 6.3 PH, and ammonia levels were 0 - normal.
He shares the tank (40L) with 2 guppies and 2 gouramis which never bother him. ( i know they are a bit cramped but I just bought a bigger tank and am going to upgrade the gouramis to the larger one!!)

What can I do to help Albert??
Is it hole in the head?? The sores seem to be developing along the lateral line on both sides of his body.

It looks like an ulcer pink in the middle with a dead white skin border.
Bacterial med any signs of flicking and rubbing also.

http/www.fbas.co.uk/Ulcers.html

Its not hole in the head to me.
http/www.nationalfishpharm.com/articles/hexamita.html

No...I haven't noticed any flicking or rubbing against things.....
what would cause an ulcer?

That link explains it pretty well, bad water quality, parasites.
Plus the tank to small but as you say you getting another one set up.

http/fish-helpline.co.uk/health/ulcers.html

poor fella...hope he does ok...

How much water did you change, what are the water parameters in nitrate and nitrite?

I don't have a nitrate/nitrite test kit. Ammonia was normal though..
I changed about 1/4 of the water. A little more than usual.
But the sores were there before I cleaned the tank.

Okay ....

I went to the fish shop last weekend and as per usual the guy blamed "too high ammonia' levels which was causing stress to the fish, resulting in bacterial ulcers.

Which would be fine except that my ammonia levels are FINE!! they are consistently at 0 - I have never even seen them above the lowest level that my test kit picks up.
Anyway, so I did a 1/3 water change, gravel vac.
Fish shop man also suggested that my pH might have been too low - was 6.3 - told me to increase to 6.7-6.8
I have been medicating the tank daily with Mela-Fix and I have seen absolutely no improvement to Albert.
The sores are both still open, and not getting any smaller.
Any suggestions now??

I turned the temp up a little to about 80F, but this afternoon, I thought it felt too high, so I put it back down to about 76F

Those ulcers are bacterial, melafix does nothing for bacterial issues. A situation like this calls for antibiotics, and a seperate medication tank. If the Mardel line of products is available to you get Maracyn & Maracyn II. A smaller med tank will be needed, as you will be doing daily 50% water changes. 10 gallon tanks work well for this, but for a single angel a 5 gallon bucket with a small heater & sponge filter works just as well.

Since you have a cycled tank with mature gravel you can get by withiut having to cycle the sponge filter, just put a handful of mature gravel on top of the new filter. This will give you enough bio filtration to get by. Your pH is fine for angels, don't try adding anything to adjust it, this is nearly impossible with tap water.

His fins looked a little red in the picture too, are the sores bloody at all? Probably bacterial though at first glance.